Asylum – A Supernatural Weekend – Part 1

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Before I begin, let me explain something to you. Asylum is the name given to a twice yearly convention held in the UK, hosted by Rogue Events, and it is all things Supernatural. No, not psychics and mediums; the TV show (or religion) Supernatural. It is at events like these, held all around the world, where us mere mortal fans have the chance to get up close and personal with the demi-god actors from the show.

At these events there are many activities going on in various rooms across the con. There are photo ops with the actors, the chance to get autographs, Stage Talks, Coffee Lounge sessions and fancy dress parties.

You want to get close to Moose? Easy, get in the queue and boom! Moose photo op! You want to see Balthazar sing ‘Get lucky’? Then get in the main hall and witness the marvellous-ness of Seb Roche! It is a weekend made for the fans, and man, is it awesome!

So, as you have probably gathered, I attended Asylum a couple of weeks ago. And I had THE BEST TIME. Do not expect great literature from this article. Don’t even expect it to make sense in some places. It is mostly me oozing flails and love for the majority of it. I am sorry.

This, my fellow fangirls and boys, is what I got up to at Asylum…

Friday

As I rocked up to the Metropole hotel in Birmingham all I knew was that I had been waiting for this convention for a year. ONE WHOLE YEAR. Waiting, not so patiently, to see the cast of my beloved Supernatural in the flesh.

What was my initial feeling on arrival? Nervousness? Anticipation? Joy? Nope. I went tits crazy because Baby was sat in the parking lot! OK, OK not the actual Baby from the show, but a Baby. A sleek, gorgeous, shiny black ’67 Chevy Impala. The most beautiful machine I have ever seen in my life. She was a beaut.

And that was it. My weekend was off to a killer start. I knew from that point on, I was going to be bowled over by everything. Hell, if I got that nerdgasmic over a freaking car, I had no chance of normalcy in front of the cast! #DeathToNormalcy

As you now know, my first experience of Asylum involved me going atomic over a car. My second experience was much calmer but equally as awesome…meeting tweeps! I knew that some of my twitter pals were joining the masses at Asylum and I planned on finding them. So, ‘tweet-tweet-tweet’ (on a shockingly expensive Wi-Fi signal, might I add) and I met up with several of them. And it was just lovely! Interacting and sharing our obsession over the internet has been wonderful and liberating, but meeting face-to-face and discussing opinions and theories in person?! It was genuinely amazing. The excitement levels were pretty damn high! A bar and fellow fans…brilliant!

And then the queuing began. HUNDREDS of us formed a very British line and patiently waited to buy tickets for photo ops with the uber tall Jared Padalecki. #takemymoney

My first fangirl moment happened that evening in the bar… and it was all Mark Sheppard’s fault. He just ever so casually wandered past our table. And there I was, flails everywhere. I believe my exact reaction was, “IT’S FUCKING CROWLEY!”

Yup, that was me. Cool. As. A. Cucumber.

Forgetting that episode, we rocked on over to the fancy dress party for that evening. The theme? London Tube Stations. Yeah. I opted for the easy choice and used my Castiel cos-play outfit. Get it? Angel? Angel Islington? Easy. My winner for the evening was the enormous inflatable cock that was wondering around with crushed Fosters beer cans hanging around his head (ha! Head…), he had clearly come (not laughing) as Cockfosters! WINNING.

Not wanting to stay up too late, I nearly went off to bed.

And then ‘Carry On My Wayward Son’ bellowed through the speakers and the roof blew off the hall.

Any worthy fan has that track as their freaking ring-tone, it is the ANTHEM of our fandom, and when it started playing, we lost our shit. The entire room sang along. It was one of those goose-bump moments, one I will never forget. It drilled home to me that I was surrounded by people who shared my, somewhat obsessive, love for the show. It felt warm and fuzzy and accepting. And as the resident DJ continued to play the classic rock songs we all knew from the show, I ended up staying up a little later than I had intended. Hello?! Who could leave as hundreds of fans are singing ‘Wanted Dead Or Alive’? NO ONE.

Saturday

How early did my day start? Pretty early. Do you know why? Misha Collins, that’s why. He plays the Angel Castiel, is a God among men and he was first up on the main stage. I was determined to get a half decent seat in the huge hall, so queuing it was (which became a recurring theme of the weekend).

So, I met some peeps, got some seats and waited for Misha. But first came the Coffee Lounge raffle… *insert dramatic drum roll here*

Do not panic, I shall enlighten you. At certain cons, there are gatherings called ‘Coffee Lounges’, or something similar, which involve a very small group of fans getting to sit with a guest in an intimate setting. At Asylum, these small groups of fans are selected at random via a raffle at the beginning of each day. A nice fair way of distributing 15 seats between 1800 fans…you see the odds are just great.

So I sat there with three Coffee Lounge tickets in my hands. One for Osric Chau, one for Mark Sheppard and one for Mr Misha ‘Man-God’ Collins.

First up was Mark’s draw. Nothing. Boo. I freaking love Mark Sheppard.

The same again happened with the draw for Osric’s lounge. Double boo.

And so, with waning hope and prayers under my breath I listened to the numbers as they were drawn for Misha’s lounge.

Then 50…or wait, was it 15?! OMFG I had 50. It needed to be 50! But I didn’t know the dude had read it out too quickly! I had to go check with a staff member. I refused to get my hopes built up too high, that way I couldn’t be left disappointed right?

But HOLY MICK FOLEY it was 50. I WAS IN! I was going to be shut in a room with 14 other people, and Misha Collins. Whoa. No, I didn’t faint there and then, but it was close.

And I ran. Not just in a random direction from madness, I ran to the registration room to give them my badge number for the session later in the morning. And while I was casually waiting to hand in my number, my friend who also got into the lounge session, turned to me and said “don’t look now…”, so naturally I did.

And there he was. Mr Misha ‘Man-God’ Collins himself.

He just wandered right by us to the Random Acts team (Random Acts is a charity organisation founded by Misha). He is real people. Really real. Tanned, gorgeous and tall. Everything else in the world could have disappeared in that moment and I wouldn’t have noticed a single thing. All I saw was Misha. All I could think of was Misha. Being real and normal and chatting away and in front of me. It was weird, beautifully weird, seeing him as Misha and not Castiel.

After I was dragged back to reality and then dragged back to the main hall we sat and waited for him to take to the stage. And for the life of me I tried to take in everything he did, everything he said…but my gawd, I was a little bit dazed to be honest.

Misha Collins Q&A

Naturally the room exploded when he was introduced. And the first thing I noticed was his hiatus stubble…it is a favourite thing amongst us fangirls…the hiatus stubble that the cast grow. It’s beautiful. Why hadn’t I noticed this when I had seen him moments before you ask? I DON’T KNOW. I WAS IN AWE.

He let us cheer and whoop for a moment or two, told us we were a fun crowd, and settled down to the business of taking questions.

One of the first things discussed was his return to the show in season 10, which has been a topic of unease on twitter as it wasn’t certain he would be returning. But yes, he is back in season 10! In fact he told us he was currently working on a 15 year contract with The CW. We can but dream…

What is you’re favourite episode of Supernatural and why? …“The French Mistake because it was awesome”. That’s all we got!

Will you be directing again in season 10? …In case you aren’t aware, Misha directed ‘Mother’s Little Helper’; episode 17 in season 9. But he told us that he won’t be directing in season 10. However, he did go on to say that he would like to direct again before it all ends…so there’ll be a season 11 then?!

What is your favourite part of directing? …“I really enjoyed bossing people around … It was fun bossing Jared and Jensen around. Ineffective, but fun”.

He continued, “it’s exhilarating to have to pay attention to so many different things at once, because when you’re directing if you drop the ball on any given thing, everything gets screwed up, so it’s a lot of fun to have to pay attention to so many things at once. When you’re acting the main thing you have to be focusing on when shooting is just trying to look pretty, and there’s a lot more going on when you’re directing. I enjoyed the challenge”.

And just for kicks he decided to take a walk around the room. Yes, the screams intensified. He asked what made people so nervous at cons? …The resounding answer was “YOU!”. He looked a little shocked by that!

What was it like filming ‘TSA America’? …’TSA America’ is a side project of Misha’s, it’s a comedic web-series about airport security staff. He co-wrote it with his wife and it recently aired via ‘Stage It’, the streaming website (which the fans crashed of course). He told us a little behind the scenes story about filming his up-close and very personal pat-down of a six-foot Texan. If you haven’t seen it, you may not understand this…

Firstly, he got a fan up on stage so he could demonstrate the pat-down for the fans that had not seen it…lucky girl! And as they re-enacted the ‘almost kiss’ from the scene, the girl totally went in for it! Who could blame her?! Misha wasn’t expecting it and got a little flustered bless him!

After collecting himself, he continued.

He explained that they had roughly 30 minutes to film this specific scene before being thrown out of the venue and so the pressure was on. Misha and his tall Texan were all set up, professional and ready to go…the camera crew however, were not.

Apparently, the very personal pat-down amused the crew so much that they couldn’t stop laughing, which meant that they shook, which meant that the cameras shook, which meant that the shots they recorded were useless. So they brought in sandbags and used them as camera props and shot again. But this time the crew screwed the sound up as they were still laughing. So they were kicked out! Yup, Misha and the Texan filmed the scene with cameras on sandbags and no crew.

FYI, Misha was pissing himself regaling us with this story. It was the first time he’d shot something with sandbag camera men!

Back to season 9 and a question about the fake FBI Agents names used in episode 22.

Castiel gave Sam and Dean the aliases of Agents Spears and Aguilera, so what alias had Cas given himself? …Originally, Cas had called himself Agent Beyonce, but the legal eagles upstairs at The CW gave that idea a big fat no, and so he was Agent Cyrus instead.

Do you think that angels relate to the gender of their vessels? …Misha said that he thinks that they do. He discussed how certain angels have jumped from vessel to vessel and how their actions altered due to changes in their gender. At one stage he sais “Cas was in his daughter at one point” and as the room burst out laughing, he realised what he said and hung his head…giggling. Doh! It was one of those rooms, there was no way he could say shit like that and expect us to ignore it!

You are an angel and a son of God, so you have to know the first five Bible books, an awesome little boy stated. …Instant laughter from the crowd as Misha’s jaw dropped! “Did I just get quizzed by a twelve year old?! Shame on you!”

He stopped and thought, “Genesis … it’s wild guess work from this point”.

“The book of Mormon!” The crowd laughed and shouted some more answers for him, “Numbers?! That’s a book in the Bible? Really?!” He turned back to the kid, “did you know this before you Wikipedia-ed it? … You know them all, really? You’re a biblical scholar? Good for you. Which book of the Bible is your favourite and why?”. Misha you troll!

What do you think has happened to poor Adam, who has been locked in hell for several years now? …Misha said, “I think that he’s OK, he’s been in hell for what, centuries now? He must be dealing with it”.

And what about Sam and Dean just leaving him down there? …Well, according to Misha they’re cold, heartless killers these days, they don’t care. Once upon a time, they were all for exorcising demons and saving all the meat-suits…but now not so much. Now they just stab them all with the demon blade!

Why was it Castiel who saved Dean from hell? …“There were times when I though that Cas was Dean’s guardian angel, but I’m not positive that that’s what it means, it could have just been that he was sort of pervy, leering at Dean from the clouds for a long time and he saw an opportunity and was like ‘I’ll volunteer for that’.” And yes, the room went mental!

What CD would Castiel buy for himself? …Miley Cyrus.

Why are all the angels bad? …There was a collective “AWWWWWWW!” around the room at the teeny girls question and Misha’s face was a picture. Those sad puppy dog eyes! Misha explained to her that he doesn’t think the angels are mean, they’re just very confused.

And his parting tip? Misha told us that the cast love to be fondled during photo ops and that we should all feel them up…but not him. He doesn’t like that.

And with that, he left the stage to a rapturous round of applause! What a way to start a day…

Jared Padalecki Photo Op

My morning continued with a collision. My face met Jared’s chest. Truthfully. There I was waiting in line, drooling slightly because WOW is Jared pretty, and then the steward lady just pushed me into him. Boom.

I. Am. Not. Complaining. No way. In fact I’d like to thank that lady very much. It was a beautiful experience.

And he was the sweetest sweetheart about it. No awkwardness, just hands on shoulders making sure I was upright…*swooooon*

I was rocking my ‘I motherfucking appreciate Misha Collins’ tee, which he read and said “that’s awesome”. Day. Made. Again.

I asked him for a big fat bear hug. And I got one. He is now my second favourite hugger in the whole world (number one being my daughter). That hug is etched into my mind forever. Photo or it didn’t happen right?!

Jared Padalecki is just a great big coodle monster! No, that’s not a typo, it’s a ‘Jared-ism’.

I left in a happy fangirl daze of Jared hugs and headed to my Coffee Lounge with Mr Perfect Pants. That’s Misha Collins, just to clarify.

Coffee Lounge With Misha Collins

I had heard various things about past Coffee Lounges with Misha; that he gets everyone up playing games, goofs around and he has even been known to pull out Twister. So I had no idea what to expect. When he walked in, he was just…regular. A regular guy with a coffee and a mobile phone. And it was lovely.

He sat and said hi and we all shuffled nervously, “will there be any crying?” he asked. Ha! Yeah, when it’s over! He told us that he’ll often cry laughing but he doesn’t tend to cry over sad things.

We relaxed pretty quickly after that ice breaker.

He looked tired and someone asked if he was still jet-lagged as he had only flown in the previous day, and yes, he said he was tired. He explained that he would usually fly in a day or two before the convention, but he had to do the CW Up-fronts for the show before he came over (the Up-fronts are basically where the show asks for advertisers). But that was fine by me. A tired Misha meant a nice chilled chat instead of a crazy Twister session.

So what are his hiatus plans? …Well, he bought a new house a couple of years ago, and it’s just about finished now. He’ll only be spending a couple of days there over summer and he voiced his thoughts that buying it was “maybe not a wise decision”.

After Asylum he is off to Amsterdam for a couple of days before flying out to Rome for JIBcon (an Italian Supernatural convention). Then he has a trip to Australia for another convention and after that he is getting some family time on a biking holiday. A holiday that he is now questioning, as taking West and Maison (his two young children) biking might not be as good an idea as he previously thought. He said that he and his wife have done a ‘trail run’ and West got bored pretty quickly and screamed for the latter part of it.

Apparently West is at that age where he listens to nothing. He just flat out refuses to do as he is told. I told him that it’s not just West, that my daughter is the same age and is going through the exact same thing. He asked me what I do to get her to obey me and I told him that I bribe her! He joked that bribery wouldn’t work for him as they don’t give West anything good to take away from him!

Asked if they will be camping on holiday, he said that yes, they will be for a couple of nights. Someone brought up the idea of doing a ‘Cooking Fast & Fresh with West: Camp-fire Edition’, and he loved that idea! (‘Cooking Fast & Fresh’ is a vlog that Misha does with his four year old son). Oh dear lord what have we done! West and Misha + a camp-fire = TROUBLE!

John Barrowman made his way into the conversation somewhere here, I can’t really recall how though! I think it had something to do with a photo someone had seen of them together…

Is he a nice guy? …Yes, “he seems nice”. It turns out that Misha has only spoken to him a couple of times and that amounts to about five minutes total. He made a comment about their relationship having nowhere to go as they had pretty much gone all the way already.

What did you think of ‘Bloodlines’? …’Bloodlines’ was the not so popular Supernatural spin-off show that The CW have now cancelled. We asked for his honest opinion on it. And though he might not have voiced it, his face said it all…he didn’t like it either.He did say that it felt quite separate to the series, which a spin-off is supposed to be, but at the same time it needed more of a connection to the mother series. He thinks that a spin-off with established characters would work better as the fans know them and love them.

We called for a Gabriel spin-off, and Misha responded with “Richard Speight?! Nah, you don’t want that!”.

We asked him if it was good to have Richard back on set? …Yes of course it was. He said that “Gabriel has only have been in a handful of episodes but Richard is loved on set, he’s family”. Aww.

Naturally the season finale came up in the conversation, and as he’ll be away from America when it airs and he asked us how we watch it…nudge nudge, wink wink. Um, yeah, we might have given him some website names and we moved swiftly past that naughty topic. Apparently we’re going to need tissues for it. THANKS MISHA.

So, we all know that Misha’s favourite episode of Supernatural is ‘The French Mistake’. I asked him if he would like to do another lighter, more humorous episode? A musical episode, for example? …Yes, he would! My follow up question? Can you sing? …He said “I have good days and bad days. Some days, yeah sure, I can sing OK, other days, no, it’s just painful”.

As Misha is the founder of GISHWES it was unsurprising that someone asked him about it. GISHWES is the ‘Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World has Ever Seen’ just in case you weren’t aware. Each year Misha creates a big list of things to scavenge…and the minions go out and gather! All in the name of charity and fun.

So, are there any things that he’s thought of adding to the list, but had to leave off because it’s pushing the boundaries too far? …YES. Always. He wants people to push themselves and have fun but he doesn’t want anyone to injure themselves or others. A few people have been arrested during the course of past hunts but he says that’s fine!

Although he did tell us about one occasion when he was in the late stages of vetting a previous list. He was exhausted but needed to get it finished and something slipped through that turned out to be quite dangerous. He had asked the scavengers to dress up in Christmas lights and get a picture of themselves displayed on a roof…yeah. He said he looked at the entries that people submitted, laughed, and then realised that maybe that wasn’t such a wise ask…

At this point in the conversation he recalls one entry that he saw, and he was laughing so much that he didn’t quite explain it to us. But we didn’t care. He was just laughing and it was such natural laughter, he had the little crinkles he gets by his eyes when he laughs so hard! The crinkles that we have seen in photos and on gag-reels, and we were seeing it first hand. It was an unspoken moment in the room, we were all committing that look to a mental camera in our mind…it was beautiful. And after reading that back, maybe somewhat pervy…

So after his laughing fit, he told us that he took that certain item off of the list so no-one would end up hanging off a roof tangled up in fairy lights. Wise decision.

Is he planning on retaliating for the pie in the face prank, pulled by Jared and Jensen, when he directed? …“Well” he said, “the problem is escalation. I get them back and then they come back with something bigger and it just rolls and escalates”.

What about getting someone else to prank them on your behalf? Then you’d be seemingly blameless? …“Ahh, a surrogate pranker? I like that”, we suggested Daneel, Jensen’s wife, she would prank Jensen. And he pondered on that one.

I can’t quite remember what prompted the mention of Disney Land in Orlando, but it came up for some reason and he told us that he doesn’t really like it. Why? …Well, he has a bad memory from when he was about 3 years old. He was taken on a road trip to Disney Land by his Uncle (might have been a family friend, I can’t quite remember!), and he said he just got spanked so much on that trip that he just kinda hates the place. There was a collective, “awww” from us in the room.

And then the horrible moment came…the steward looked at her watch.

Misha caught her and called her out on it, “it’s time huh? You want me to wrap it up? See, this is what happens…” he told us and then continued to talk. You’ve gotta love Misha!

He decided to tease us about the season finale, “see I was going to tell you about it, but you see, I just don’t trust you guys” he shrugged. Little shit!

And then another lady poked her head around the door, “and they always send someone else when I don’t do what I’m told”, we laughed and the stewards frowned. It really was time to say goodbye. And with a little wave and lots of thanks he was escorted out by his meaty bodyguard.

Wowzzzz… I sat with Misha Collins for nearly an hour. We talked and stuff. Hell, we compared our children!

But do you know what I remember most about the whole thing? Him. Just him as a person, not as ‘Misha Collins: The Actor’, but as a regular guy with a regular life.

I remember the way he sat, the way he smiled, his impeccable manners (he thanked me when I told him that TSA was awesome), his tan, the fact that he looked right at me when he spoke to me…

I know, I know, I sound like a super stalker right now, but that’s what I remember.

I’ve had to rack my memories to remember what we all talked about. Everything else is just right there, at the front of my memory. He is a genuinely lovely man. I cannot reiterate that point enough to you guys, he is a genuinely lovely man. I oozed Misha love when I came out of that room!

Mark Sheppard Photo Op

In my dreamy dream world of Misha I almost forgot to go get my photo with Mark Sheppard! Luckily I passed the photo studio and thought, ‘hey, I have a photo booked with him!’.

So in I ducked. If you follow me on twitter then you will know that I purchased super special tee’s for the entire con, and I had planned to wear a specific tee to my photo with Mark.

But I forgot all that in my dreamy dreamy Misha world, and walked in with my ‘motherfucking Misha’ tee on. OOPS. Crowley did not approve! He read it and chuckled, “I fucking hate that t-shirt”, what a cheeky mofo! Anyway, we laughed, we had our photo taken and I left. Thank you Mr King of Hell Sir.

King of Hell? Bah, he’s a big softie. A big swearing softie.

Jared Padalecki Q&A

I had my first clash of the weekend here as my photo op with Mark cut into Jared’s stage talk…annoying!

I didn’t have a great seat but I could see the screen and I could hear him just fine.

The first question I caught was,“who was more interesting to play? LuciferSam or EzekielSam?” …Jared preferred to play Ezekiel Sam as he’s a more interesting character because of the secret he had to keep. He told us an interesting tit-bit, apparently he played Ezekiel before Tahmoh Penikett did because of Mark Sheppard’s schedule, which meant the series was filmed out of sequence for the first few episodes. So, in actuality, Jared really created Ezekiel as a character and Tahmoh had to play him as Jared had played him.

Someone asked about the Mark of Cain storyline and the way it’s playing out. He was very quick to praise Jensen’s incredible work this season. I think his words were “he’s killing it this season with the Mark of Cain storyline”, or something to that effect. He informed us that we will see the Cain story come to a head in the finale. Cue screams. He added that we’ll need a box of tissues for the last five minutes…gee, thanks.

A fan asked about the scene in 9×22, in which Sam told Dean that he’d let him die. It was an awful moment to watch between the brothers, did Sam mean it? …Jared said no, Sam didn’t mean what he said. “When Sam told Dean he’d let him die, he was lying. Dean just doesn’t realise that”. He said that Sam was lashing out, he was hurt by Dean tricking him and wanted to hurt Dean in return. Fans collectively wiped their brow.

Do you think Ruby will make a return to the show? …His answer was no, it wouldn’t work. But he did say that Gen (his wife, Genevieve Padalecki, who played Ruby) would come back and do cons again to say hi to all the fans.

An amazing fan informed him that he has attended 53 cons! He was pretty stunned by that, and was very happy that he was beating Jensen who has attended 47. But he was then informed that he is still behind Misha. He was not pleased about that!

He said that his first con terrified him and nearly put him off them as nobody was there!

Jared was talking about the finale and told us that we’re all going to cry. The room whooped and cheered, which he found hilarious! He joked about the Doctors who were attending another convention being held in the hotel, “they’ll be walking past and just hear, ‘You’re going to cry!’ and then cheers and they’ll be all ‘what?! I’ve spent my life making people better and they’re happy that they’re going to cry?!’”.

And I’m not sure how it came about but Jared informed us that Misha hasn’t changed his pants since the first episode… and that was his last quip for his solo Q&A.

I might not have gotten to see the whole Q&A session with Jared, but from what I did see I learnt one thing…Jared loves Sam. He loves playing him, he loves him as a character and he has given a part of himself over to the role. And that is wonderful. As fans, we can be very protective of the characters we love, and to know that the actors love them just as much as we do somehow justifies our craziness…it’s really quite comforting.

Osic Chau Q&A

Next up was the uber adorable Osric. I should just quickly explain that he had come in full ‘Welcome to Night Vale’ cos-play. He was channelling his inner Cecil and it was wonderful.

How are you enjoying watching Supernatural week to week with the rest of the fans? …”I hate it!” He hates the wait from episode to episode, just like the rest of us. “And I hate the cliffhangers”. Yup, just like the rest of us!

He confessed to us that he has yet to catch up with the entire show. Apparently he has seen up to season 4 and then from 8 onwards. He also confessed to being a binge watcher, and said that he needed a free week to sit and watch the remaining seasons, one after the other, 24 hours a day. That is commitment.

Which TV shows have influenced you? …Pokemon! YES! Osric is a massive geek and he let it all hang out. FYI, Charmander is his favourite Pokemon, he always chose him as his starter Pokemon in the games.

A lovely fan thanked him for being a gift to the fandom, and he replied with thanks and the fact that the fandom has been a gift to him also. Seriously, this guy is the sweetest.

AJ Buckley Q&A

Whoo! Ghostfacers! So, the firstly AJ got us all up on our feet to do the ‘Ghostfacers’ hand action. With a big emphasis on the ‘facers’ part, it was awesome.

He told us that he was attempting to get his partner in crime, Travis Wester, on face-time so he could join in the fun. While a tech guy tried to sort that out he told us he wanted to introduce a “guy who is way too sexy to leave off stage there” …and it was Seb Roche! The hall went mental!

And just as all the fun was about to kick off, I got called to my photo op with Osric. Boo, because I had to leave. But yay, because Osric.

Osric Chau Photo Op

Osric. He scared the crap out of me! Lovely, lovely Osric…the fandom’s sweetheart…with the freakishly iron grip. We said hi, we asked how each other was doing and it was lovely. I went to hug him and man, he gripped my shoulder like he was raising me from perdition!

And that is why I look like a deer in headlights. Because my friends, sweet Osric is built. Those arms bulge up close and damn that dude can squeeze! I gotta admit though, I kinda loved it!

Misha Collins Photo Op

Misha, Misha, Misha. Yup, definitely an awkward one. He was so entirely beautiful and perfect that he scared me. He drained all my faculties – speech, movement, logical thinking – all fucked in his presence.

It was different to the Coffee Lounge. I was right next to him. My subconscious rebelled and I flailed.

I had a pose that I wanted us to strike…but I couldn’t speak, so I got a hug instead. Which is not a bad thing, don’t get me wrong!

So, bear hugs, yay! BUT NO! My right arm squished him like he was a life saver. My left arm? Oh that just hung there. Awkwardly. I was yelling internally for it to hug him back…just hug him back! But it wouldn’t move! I was stood locked in his arms and I freaked. I absolutely freaking freaked.

Shame.

Or not.

I’m not embarrassed to say that he had that effect on me. He is one of the most beautiful men walking the planet, he is kind, funny, generous…how could I not be in awe?!

He was the man I waited a year to see with my own eyes. And to have him hug me…be uber nice and sweet to me? Yeah, I so freaked.

I dislike myself in this op…but it’s got Misha in it so everyone looks at him instead! He makes up for everything.

Mark Sheppard Autograph

Yeah, so I got to stand in another queue. I’m British. It’s FINE. Anyways, Crowley was at the end of it!

I was just behind a girl sporting a lovely long blue wig (would you believe) and as I rocked up to the table, Mark was still giggling to himself about said wig.

“At least mine is real” I quipped, “yes, but do the collars and cuffs match?” he replied.

Wait, what?! Did Mark Sheppard just…? YES. Yes he did. And I may have blushed a little because then he told me I’d turned very patriotic… “red face, white t-shirt, blue hair. Very patriotic”. Yup, me and Mark had a thing. And it was glorious.

Evening Shenanigans

After a long hard day of queueing and awesomeness, it was drink time. We got dressed up for the Zombie party and hit the bar.

Me! As Castiel (Friday), and Shauna Of The Dead (Saturday).

There was wine and fancy dress and me grabbing Osric’s nail polished hands…like I said, there was wine…sorry Osric!

Me and the twitter peeps took some photos and did some dancing and then I retired to my lovely hotel room with a bottle of water in preparation for the next day and more queuing.

Me and tweeps at the Zombie fancy dress party! Ewefluffypup on the left and Camp Chitaqua on the right!

I apologise for the photos, just try not to look at me. Instead, focus on the famous types I’m attached to!

Day two involved a lot less photos but a lot more queuing, so stay tuned for Part 2 … Coming soon!

I love all things geek! I'm a Pinterest addict and I fangirl over many TV shows including Sherlock, Supernatural, Doctor Who. I LOVE videogames and spend a lot of time in other worlds thanks to them. I watch WWE, read lots and stalk Bioware people on twitter. Another really big love of mine is writing FanFiction (which you can find on my website).

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